Devlin Peck
What are the best remote jobs for former teachers?
You’re in the right place. Today, you’ll learn what the top jobs are for teachers – whether you feel burned out from teaching, want a remote job, or are looking for change.
Want to learn more? Read on!
A lot of teachers I talk to feel like they have to be in the classroom or lecture hall to make a difference.
But that’s not the case.
You don’t necessarily need to be a classroom teacher to teach. Many former teachers get into alternative fields because they can do what they love without the low pay, politics, and lack of respect that often accompanies a teacher role.
The thing is: teachers are more burned out than most other professionals.
A recent Rand study found that teachers are more than twice as likely to be stressed than adults working in other professions.
Between school shootings, the pandemic, and salary negotiations, teachers are leaving their careers in droves.
One in three teachers says they’re likely to quit and find another job in the next two years, according to a recent survey by the EdWeek Research Center and Merrimack College.
And teachers are finding more than ever that by finding another job, they can:
As a teacher, you have numerous transferable skills that can help land competitive corporate roles. It’s just a matter of knowing what best suits you.
And, if you’re hesitant to take the leap completely, there are side hustles like tutoring or teaching ESL that you can use to earn some extra cash or more slowly transition out of classroom teaching.
However, as a full-time and remote career, one of the best ways to teach without being a teacher is the growing instructional design field.
I’ll go into specific details in a little bit, but instructional design is essentially creating learning experiences for employees, companies, and organizations.
Take it from a few of my own friends and students. Sean and David left teaching and landed remote jobs as instructional designers. And they’ve never looked back – they’re loving their careers, which helped them gain things like better work-life balance.
With that, what are the best remote jobs out there? Let’s look at the full list.
Teachers are a rare breed. They are able to easily adapt to challenges and quickly build relationships with new people.
As a teacher, you have countless existing skills that can be transferred to a more rewarding job. Several of which can also be fulfilled remotely.
Here are the top ones!
An instructional designer is someone who creates digital (and traditional) learning experiences. You can work in multiple industries, including the corporate, governmental, or educational sectors. I talk more about what instructional design is here:
With the rise of online education, the demand for instructional designers is growing rapidly. And thanks to the skillset you’ve developed as a teacher, you can use your existing skills to develop course materials, create learning objectives, and design assessments as an instructional designer.
For example, you probably learn a lot about your students and then adjust your learning objectives and lesson plans to help them succeed. That’s what instructional designers do, too. Of course, there are differences in how you deliver the lessons or who you teach, but teaching and instructional design have a lot in common.
Plus, the industry has another big perk:
Many instructional jobs are remote.
And according to our research, 94% of instructional designers report a healthy work-life balance.
Instructional design salaries can vary depending on things like industry, the company, the size of the team, and the complexity of the projects.
Generally, instructional designers make between $50,000 and $100,000 a year. Our own research found that the average full-time salary in the US is $85,466.
For more on how to become an instructional designer, take a look at my video here:
Another remote role for former teachers is curriculum development. In this position, you are responsible for creating and designing curriculum materials based on educational standards. In other words, you create the materials that teachers use in the classroom.
Curriculum developers are usually subject matter experts because they must design engaging and effective lessons or assignments. That’s why you as a former teacher can easily slot into this role. After all, you have first-hand knowledge of the educational system and what does and doesn’t work in a classroom.
As a curriculum developer, you need a bachelor's degree in the subject area you are designing materials for, as well as experience in teaching or curriculum design.
The average salary of a curriculum developer is around $60,700 per year. Many curriculum developers also have the option to work remotely, which can be a great way to increase your salary while still maintaining flexibility in your schedule.
For more on which one you’d like to pursue, take a look at my video on instructional design versus curriculum development:
An educational consultant typically provides advice to students and their families to help them navigate the college admissions process and select the right school for them.
You’ll also help students:
As a teacher, you have knowledge of the educational system and understand what it takes to be successful in school. You also have experience in helping students set and achieve goals, and can provide valuable insight into the job market.
Some educational consulting jobs are remote. The salary varies depending on the company, but it typically ranges from $50,000 to $80,000 per year. The average salary is $68,877.
Learning specialists are another option for former teachers. As a corporate learning specialist, you help people get up to speed in their roles, teach them about technologies, and similar tasks. You work with different types of institutions – financial organizations, universities, and governmental agencies.
This career is very similar to instructional design. The transferable skills are similar, too; as a teacher, you draft lesson plans, adapt teaching approaches, and help students understand and learn new technologies and tools.
Many roles are based at home. Learning specialists also tend to make a competitive salary, depending on their experience and the company they work for. Salaries can range anywhere from $45,000 to $90,000 per year. The average salary is $60,028.
What’s an educational sales representative? As an educational sales representative, you sell educational products and services to school districts, institutions, universities, and other organizations. You identify potential customers, develop relationships with them, and present products and services in a way that meets the customer’s needs.
Thanks to your experience in teaching, you know this target market, so you know how to sell products that offer solutions to their problems. If you enjoy building relationships and understanding what people need, this career might be for you.
The average salary for an educational sales representative is around $61,435 per year. Salaries can range from $37,000 to $65,000, with the highest earners making over $90,000. Plus, sales jobs are jobs that can easily be done remotely.
If you love teaching but don’t love the other aspects of teaching in a classroom, private tutoring is an alternative remote career path.
As a private tutor, you help students who want or need extra support. You could also work in a corporate setting with adults – for instance, to support employees in learning a language they need for work.
There are plenty of platforms online where you can start tutoring – many of these jobs are freelance-type jobs so you set your own hours or rates. Or you may apply to a company that pays you a salary as an employee.
Either way, tutoring is often done online and you could work with students all over the world.
The average salary is $36,919. If you work for yourself, you have more flexibility to increase that income.
Executive assistants support executives with a wide range of tasks, from scheduling meetings to preparing presentations and managing emails.
In your teaching role, you’ve learned how to communicate, plan, and keep things organized, even in stressful and hectic work environments. If you love that side of teaching, take a look at remote executive assistant positions.
Executive assistants typically earn salaries in the range of $50,000 to $90,000 per year, depending on experience and location. The average salary is $53,943.
A communications manager develops and executes communication strategies.
Teaching offers plenty of transferable skills. For example, you know how to get your message across. You also communicate with different stakeholders every day and understand different audiences.
The average salary is $117,075. And, there are plenty of job opportunities to work remotely.
Educational policy consultants help create, implement, and evaluate educational initiatives. They also analyze data to identify strengths and weaknesses, assess current practices, and implement changes to improve an organization’s educational outcomes.
Additionally, they provide guidance on curriculum development, instructional design, and assessment strategies, and help companies, school districts, and government agencies create professional development programs.
For example, the National Education Association has developed professional development frameworks to guide teachers in incorporating technology into their instructional practices. That requires educational consultants.
As a teacher, you have skills you can use to land remote educational policy consulting roles. You’re thoroughly familiar with the education system and probably have a few ideas for how to improve it.
The salary of an educational consultant depends on the type of consulting work you do. Generally, educational consultants earn an average of $60,000-$90,000 per year. The average salary is $71,005.
It might seem a little far-fetched, but as a former teacher, you could make a really good software developer – and these roles are often remote.
You will need to learn a new skill, software development. But if you enjoy the more analytical and detail-oriented parts of your teaching job, software development could be a fulfilling career path for you.
You can earn a salary in the range of $90,000 to $150,000 per year. The average salary is $88,625.
Tons of companies hire former teachers. There are remote jobs with tech companies, government agencies, and nonprofits. It all depends on what your next career looks like.
Remember David, my student, who I mentioned earlier?
He went from being a teacher to working remotely as an instructional designer for Amazon Web Services.
David says:
“As a former teacher with a love of technology and design, I knew that an instructional design job would be a perfect fit for me.”
And thanks to creating a solid portfolio website (as a student of my ID Bootcamp), David landed his dream job at AWS.
Other employers that hire remote instructional designers include:
…And more. You can research more remote instructional design jobs on platforms like LinkedIn.
That’s it! Those are the best remote jobs for teachers.
Was there a job that piqued your interest?
If you want to learn more about instructional design, I help former teachers build their careers in this space.
As a remote job option, instructional design can be both fulfilling and pay a good salary. So, if you want to learn more, get my checklist that shows you the exact steps to becoming an instructional designer.
